Based on a play by
Somerset Maugham, THE CIRCLE is a handsome film
directed by Frank Borzage. The film opens in the 1890s
as Lady Catherine is about to leave her husband (and
son) and run off with her lover. The scene dissolves to
30 years later where young Elizabeth (pretty Eleanor
Boardman) is facing the same decision: dull husband
(Creighton Hale) or dashing lover (Malcolm McGregor). To
make matters worse, Lady Catherine has been invited
(along with husband) to visit!

As Boardman and company
get ready for their guests we get several shots of Lady
Catherine and husband motoring toward the country
estate. The shots are from the back. So it's a slight
shock when Lady Catherine breezes into the house and
goes up to McGregor, thinking he's her son. Lady
Catherine (superbly played by Eugenie Besserer) is seen
to be a rather silly middle-aged dowager wearing too
much makeup.

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred
per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate

Audio

Dolby Digital Stereo (Garth
Neustadter)

Subtitles

None

Features

Release
Information:
Studio: Warner Home Video

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen - 1.33:1

Edition Details:
• None

DVD Release Date:
November 6th, 2012Keep Case

Chapters 7

Comments

The
Circle is a charming silent comedy based on a play
by Somerset Maugham and directed by Frank Borzage for
MGM before he moved to
FOX. Eleanor Boardman is a young wife who has to
choose between her husband Arnold Cheney (Creighton
Hale) or her lover (Malcolm McGregor). Eugenie Besserer
steals the movie as Arnold's mother Lady Catherine who
once made the same decision favoring her lover. The
younger version of Lady Catherine is played by
20-year-old Joan Crawford.

The
transfer on the made-on-demand disc from Warner Archive
shows its age, with many marks, specs and lines running
throughout the feature. There are a few scenes that are
too soft (capture 2), but those are seen not often. The
film features a wonderful orchestral score by Garth
Neustadter in stereo. Considering the age of the film
and how much it would cost for a proper restoration
(especially since the original materials no longer
exist), this is a very nice presentation that we can
recommend to any fan of silent cinema and Frank Borzage
(Street
Angel,
Lucky Star,
7th Heaven).